So today I am handing over the reins to my friend Jane who has also caught the blogging bug. She is an expat living in Germany with 2 beautiful girls aged 4 and 2. She is great with a sewing machine and has made some great children's clothes. So for now I will let go of my control freak nature and let you read her great tricks of the trade for fussy eaters. Take it away Jane......






Although I am the proud(ish) owner of my own blog, I'm trying to stick to creative posts, so I thought I might be able to hijack "a strong coffee" to let off steam on some of the issues I like to rant about as a Mummy. Louise kindly agreed to this, so I'll try not to lower the tone of her blog too much!  I've decided to follow up on Louise's post on food rules. It seems every household has their own rules, so here are some of ours:


1. Carrots will only be eaten by my 4 year old if bought with the greens still attached and they can be consumed on the swing in the garden. All other carrots are inedible.

2. Yogurts with bits of fruit in are unacceptable, but ones with bits of musli or better still chocolate are O.K.

3. Muesli will not be eaten by my 2 year old unless it can be shared out of Daddy's bowl.

4. Eggs will be eaten in any form at any time. Shell appears to make them more tasty.

5. Only the middle of any type of bread is edible, even muffins, which are essentially crust all over

6. Only the letters A S and N from alphabetti spaghetti are edible, although at this point I have to add that alphabetti is definitely a very educational food in my eyes!

7. Either child wouldn't be palmed off with raisins as a treat once chocolate had passed their lips.




Although my kids are generally good eaters, I do resort to some tricks to get them to eat enough of the less desirable veggies, and not just fill up on the nice bits....In our house the veggies are always ready first, so with the kids hungry and sitting at the table, they can make a start on their veggies while waiting for their sausages, fish fingers or whatever


The Charlie and Lola episode on food worked wonders - mashed potatoes became "clouds", fish fingers were "ocean bites", and broccoli became "little trees". We even had them fighting over the broccoli after that!


Generally, if one of them likes it, the other one will eat it too. This especially applies if there is a bowl of it in the middle of the table, so neither of them wants to get hard done by and eat up much better


Despite my initial rejection of tomato ketchup, I have to admit that it now has its place in our household. Some foods which would otherwise be totally rejected have worked their way into the kids diet by a gradual reduction of the amount of ketchup they are bathed in! 

So as we say in Germany "Guten Appetit"!


Thank you Jane - I have successfully managed to release a little bit of control! So do you have any tricks of the trade like Jane that you would like to share? Big man has to have courgette grated so he cant see it - chunks are rejected. Generally I don't have many problems with middle man. It is stopping him from eating a trodden on kebab off the floor that is more on an issue. Who knows what baby man will be like. At the moment it is a case of if he can pick it up he will try to eat it. Please leave your tips below and dont forget to check out Get Stitched.